love me some lamingtons

two big purchases for my travels: a voltage converter and a laptop lock. i dont know why 2 years of college left me without purchasing a lock (probably because no one in their right mind would steal crapbox freshman year) but i finally caved and bought one. here's hoping i have a desk to tie it down to. other than that... i was trying to find some sweet ace australian dessert recipes for my party on sunday. i ended up making a tester pavlova today, which i thought would turn out like an angel food cake.. no way man. this thing is delissssh.. hard meringue crust with a marshmallow interior. only 3 ingredients to make it, too. AND it's fat free. the end result, though, was much too sugary.. so i'm definitely going to have to cut back on those 25 cups of sugar i poured in. i'm gonna try again tomorrow, hopefully just to get the cake set for sunday when i will ice it. i'm also making lamingtons, but don't tell anyone, i'm cheating with pre-made sara lee pound cake. and non-decciated coconut. oh boy, can anyone really handle all these secrets, because i'm not sure you can. intense stuff here, matey.

i can't believe in t-minus 5 days i'm leaving for the land of oz. do you realize this is like, a childhood dream finally making it to actualization. and then for 5 months i'm going to be living a completely different life than i've ever experienced here. i'm going to have to wear an academic gown to dinner.. and learn the tram system of a whole new city.. and i get to play aussie rules football... however, the one thing i will regret: leaving chicago when it's finally getting warm. and only to go to melbourne's winter.. a cold and rainy 50-something degrees. that's winter. that's cold. hey, chicago, take a hint, okay?

debating if i should bring my tennis racquet or not. one of my goals for this trip is to play tennis on the rebound ace of melbourne park (where the aussie open is held). you can rent indoor and outdoor courts, but it's kind of pricey at $26-$40AUS an hour, depending on time and date. so maybe once or twice, eh? and obviously if they have tennis courts on campus i could be all over them. if i find a tennis partner. or a wall. that's kind of depressing, though. hi, wall. want to play tennis?

alright, playa. i'm gonna pop, lock, and drop it right on out of here (if my hiphop beat be bringin' you down, playa, stop frontin' and get on the a to the l to the y to the c-i-a train, cuz it's a root-toot-tootin your way.)

i hope melbourne can only begin to handle my ghettoness.


ps. i made vito a buildabear today. it's a secret (remember, SHHHH) and i named it mel-bear-n. hahahahaha. oh boy. take a breather. ok. seacrest out!

lucky 11?

okay y'all. here it is. the alycia-no-holds-barred-all-you-can-eat-and-a-side-of-sweet-potato-fries blog. thats weblog for all you non-computer savvy types. basically, i want to chronicle my travels down under so that it is easy for me to write up and easy for you to follow. granted, right now it's june 24th and i am in lemont, but i just ran a half marathon and a 5k back to back and i'm tired, so lay off, okay?

so i need to figure out what i don't have yet that i'll need for the trip. so far, i've come up with...

• laptop lock
• voltage transformer/power converter
• aussie dollars
• travelers checksques
• print out of visa (not to mention e-ticket, itineraries, phone numbers, etc..)

if i think of anything else, i'll write it down here. at least i know i have it written down somewhere, because my memory works better for other people than it does for myself.

so, as you can tell, this blog is pretty much the lame right now, but then again, so is lemont, illinois, usa. so bare with me, and maybe i'll add some pretty graphics, and we can grow and mature and ripen together. i'm gonna go get a fudgsicle.

goodonya,
alycia